Still pinned in the seat and with 6500rpm rapidly approaching, shift into second. That split-second when you shift is one of the most heavenly events you’ll ever experience in any car, equalling or bettering the feeling of flooring the pedal of a Bugatti Veyron for the first time or running a 250GTO past 8000rpm. The 12-cylinder symphony that bellowed at ten-tenths is momentarily muted as revs drop, the sudden silence bringing the sound of the whining gearbox to fore. You feel a slight catch as you shift out of first and hit neutral, then another slight catch as the lever slots into second. Right foot back on the floor now, and the crashing wave of unabated acceleration and spine-tingling 12-cylinder, four-trumpeting-exhaust symphony once again blankets your being.

[…]

Blast down a straight, brake hard (this car cheats a bit here, for it was fitted with discs at the time of our drive, soon to be changed back to the original drums) and then enter a hairpin. Stand hard on the gas as you exit the turn; the rear hunkers down as the steering wheel slides through your fingers as it quickly centers. The sensation of it all is as fluid and surreal as anything I’ve experienced. And all the while you are looking out over one of the best automotive road views ever – those curvaceous fenders, long hood and sloping metal covering the carbs.

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And so on. Please make note of Goodfellow’s comparisons — to a Veyron and a 250 GTO. I imagine his life is that of a hopeless cubicle-dweller.

On a sad note, Octane do not appear to put their old articles online so I’m afraid you’ll have to hunt down a copy of their April 2009 issue to get the rest. Or you can try and pry mine from my cold, dead fingers.